USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 2 > Part 65
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(II) Ensign John Pratt, second child and eldest son of Lieut. William Pratt, born Feb. 20, 1644, married, June 8, 1669. Sarah Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones, of Guilford. Their children : John, Elizabeth, Thomas, Ysacke, Sarah, Lydia, Mehet- able and Mary.
(III) Ysacke Pratt, fourth child of Ensign John Pratt, born Jan. 16, 1677, married Mary Taylor. Their children : Isaac, Timothy, Mary, Humphrey, James and Elizabeth.
(IV) Humphrey Pratt, fourth child of Isaac Pratt, born May 16, 1716, married Lydia Tully, daughter of William Tully, Nov. 30, 1746. They resided in Old Saybrook. Mr. Pratt died Aug. 20, 1799. Their children : Humphrey, William, Lydia, Elias and Andrew.
(V) Andrew Pratt, fifth child of Humphrey Pratt, born Nov. 8, 1756, was thrice married, first to Nancy Dorrance, of Rhode Island, who died Feb. 2. 1785, aged twenty-eight. In 1787 he married Elizabeth Whaples, who died May 15, 1795, aged thirty. On June 12, 1796, he married (third) Han- nah Andrews, of Berlin, Conn. Andrew Pratt en- tered the army at eighteen years of age. and was in in the Revolutionary war until its close. His chil- dren : By first wife-Sally, Tully ; by second wife -Lydia P'., Daniel Humphreys ; by third wife-Bet- sey W., Henry M., William T., Nancy Dorrance and Horatio M.
(VI) Lydia P. Pratt, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Pratt, born Nov. 16, 1788, married Hiland
H. Parker Nov. 10, 1811, and on May 19, 1830, married (second) Benjamin Taggart.
Lineage from which John and Lieut. William descended is found in the registry of wills in Hert- fordshire, England, as follows :
The first record we find in direct line of descent is the will of Thomas Pratt. of Baldoc, in Hertford- shire. There is no date of his birth ; but his will is dated Feb. 5. 1539. Therein he remembers his wife Joan and sons Thomas, James and Andrew, and daughter Agnes.
Of Andrew Pratt, the next in line of descent, no will has been found, but the parish records contain the following names and baptisms of his children : Ellen, daughter of Andrew. baptized 1561 ; William, baptized October, 1562; Richard, baptized June, 1 567.
The will of William Pratt, son of Andrew and grandson of Thomas of Baldoc, is found in the Doctors Commons, dated November, 1629, at Stern- age, in Hertfordshire, of which parish he was rector thirty years. The history of the County of Hert- ford, England, contains the following memorial : "Here lies Rev. William Pratt, Bachelor of Sacred Theology, and most illustrious rector of this church for thirty years." He married a lady whose name was Elizabeth, by whom he had six children, and died in 1629, aged sixty-seven. Their children : Sarah, baptized Feb. 6, 1606; Mary, baptism not found; Elizabeth, April 2. 1613; Richard, Feb. 16, 1618; John, Nov. 9, 1620; Lieut. William, baptism not found. It appears that William and John were not remembered in the will, probably for the reason that they left for America or signified their inten- tion of leaving and received their portion.
By the foregoing records we are able to trace the pedigree of Lieut. William Pratt, the settler of Hartford, backward three generations. that is, to his grandfather, Thomas Pratt. of Baldoc, in Hertford- shire, who died in 1539, one hundred years pre- vious to the time when the settlers of Hartford drew their home lots. As we find the line traced backward to Thomas of Baldoc in the fourteenth century, the record makes it probable that the line- age goes back to William, one of the four brothers who came to England from Normandy in the eleventh century.
WILLIAM DANIEL WYLIE PARKER, chief clerk of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at Hart- ford, was born March 6, 1852, in New Britain, son of Luman F. Parker. He received his education in the public schools of New Britain, and at an early age began to work with his father in the shops of Parker & Whipple, in Meriden, to which town his father removed about 1865, and he also worked as a | contractor in that city and in Pittsburg, Bridge- port and Middletown, continuing the latter line until 1893, wlien he received appointment to his present position through cx-Congressman Vance. At the expiration of his first term of four years he was re-
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appointed, by Samuel B. Horne, and is now serving under Harry E. Back. His continuation in the incumbency is the highest compliment that could be paid to the value of his services. In political affilia- tion Mr. Parker is an independent Democrat.
On Aug. 27. 1878, Mr. Parker was married in Meriden to Miss Ella ( Nellie) J. Clark, who was born in Easthampton. Middlesex county, daughter of Cyrus R. and Zuba ( Tryon) Clark, and three children have blessed their union : Charles William, born Feb. 28, 1880, is a lithograph worker in Hart- ford; Harold Hiland. born Sept. 23. 1883, is a printer, employed in the office of the Meriden Journal; Elmer Clifford, born Sept. 20, 1885, at- tends the Meriden high school. The family are identified with the Episcopal Church. Mr. Parker is a man of domestic tastes, well liked among all his . acquaintances and respected wherever he is known, and his wife shares with him the high regard of all in the circle of their friendship.
DENNIS WARD. a typical self-made man, now successfully engaged in the coal and wood trade in New Haven, was born in that city Oct. 8, 1842, son of Owen Ward.
Owen Ward was born in County Kildare, Ire- land, a son of Dennis Ward, a well-known pork packer, who lived and died in his native land. In 1840 Owen Ward left the Emerald Isle and came to America to find a home and fortune for himself. He married Mary Hogan, a native of the same lo- cality as himself. and a daughter of Owen Hogan, a dealer in produce, who passed his entire life in Ireland. Mrs. Ward passed away in 1862, the mother of nine children, namely: Dennis. Bridget. Owen, James, William, Frank, John, Mary Ann and Ann, four of whom are yet living, two sons and two daughters.
Dennis Ward acquired his early literary training in a little school taught by a Miss Jacobs, and later attended one taught by a Miss Bartfish. He then passed five or six years in West St. Mary's par- ochial school and completed his education in the Rogers school. When he began life for himself he found employment driving a team, and at the age of twenty-one was contracting on his own be- half. He became of age on Wednesday, and the following Monday he branched out on his own ac- count, carrying lumber from a vessel to a scow, for which work he received forty cents per hour. By economy he managed to save enough to embark in business. On Sept. 30, 1880. he began his present business, in which he has rapidly risen to the front rank. He is careful and conscientious in his dealings and has won a fine trade.
In 1868 Mr. Ward was united in marriage with Mary T. Lee, who was born in County Carlow, Ire- land, a daughter of James Lee, and a family of seven children has come of this union, of whom four are now living : James, Mary E .. Annie and Elizabeth. In his political relations Mr. Ward is a stanch Dem-
ocrat and takes a keen interest in the questions of the day. True to the faith of his fathers, he has continued his membership in the Church of Rome and is identified with Sacred Heart Catholic Church. In all the relations of life he has been found honest and upright, ever seeking to do that which he thought was right. He is temperate in all his habits and has never tasted intoxicating liquor. He has found that success is the reward of honest effort, and in his work he has been enabled to accumulate considerable property in New Haven. He built his home at No. 395 Columbus avenue and has occu- pied same ever since.
CHARLES B. WOOSTER, a leading con- tractor and builder at Ansonia, is a representative of the best element in business life, his fine presence and sympathetic nature giving pleasure even in a chance greeting, while a well-stored mind makes his conversation of rare interest. While he has been very successful in business, he has always found time for participation in local affairs and has been especially prominent in fraternity work. He was born July 2, 1844, in Oxford, this county, a son of Daniel and Caroline ( Bassett ) Wooster.
Daniel Wooster, who was a farmer by occupa- tion, was born and reared in Derby, this county. but made his permanent home in Oxford, where he owned a large farm. In politics he was a Democrat, but he did not seek official honors, and for many years he was a faithful member of the Methodist Church. He died at the age of seventy-three, while his estimable wife died aged forty-four. They had four children, as follows: John, a resident of Sey- mour ; Mary, who married first James F. Carley, of Oxford, and later Stiles Loveland, of Newtown ; Charles B., our subject : and Harriet, wife of John Hawkins, of Oxford. The mother was a native of Great Hill, Seymour, this county, where her an- cestors settled at an early day. Her father, Isaac Bassett, was a sea captain for some years, but passed his last days in retirement at Seymour, his death occurring at the age of eighty-eight, and her mother Betsy, reared a large family and died aged seventy- five years.
Charles B. Wooster was trained to farm work in his youth, and received a common-school educa- tion only. At the age of twenty he began working at the masons' trade, which he followed in different towns in this section for about five years, when he engaged in business for himself at Ansonia. For some time his business included contracts in various places, but later his work in Ansonia justified him in restricting his operations to that locality. The business having been established in 1873, he is now one of the oldest mason contractors in the town. He has built many of the best buildings there, in- cluding the Elm street school, and has made a spec-
ialty of constructing dams. He has also dealt ex- tensively in real estate, buying the land for the pur- : pose of building houses for sale, and a number of
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dwellings near his own attractive residence, at No. 263 Wakelee Ave .. were thus placed in the market. His contracts are for wood, stone, or any other building material, and at times he has from twenty- five to fifty men employed.
On Oct. 25, 1871, Mr. Wooster married Miss Henrietta Struckman, a native of Derby, and daugh- ter of Conrad Struckman, a copper refiner, whose last years were spent in Ansonia. She was the only child by his first wife, Henrietta Hubbell, but he had three children by a second marriage. Our subject has one son, Dwight, a mason builder in Ansonia, who married Miss Alice Pope, an'd has had three children, Earle and Wynola, deceased, and Homer, who survives.
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Mr. Wooster is a Republican in politics, and has served one term as selectman, and two years as deputy judge of the city court. He and his family attend Emmanuel Church, at Ansonia, and he is an active member of the Masonic order, belonging to George Washington Lodge. No. 82, F. & A. M .; Mt. Vernon Chapter, No. 35; Union Council, No. 27, of Derby; New Haven Commandery, No. 2. K. T., at New Haven ; and Pyramid Temple, at Bridge- port. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias ; the I. O. O. F., Naugatuck Lodge and Hope En- campment, at Ansonia ; the A. O. U. W., of which he is a charter member ; and he assisted in organiz- ing in Ansonia the Independent Order of Red Men, the Order of American Mechanics, and the Order of Eastern Star. He takes special interest in the work of the Knights of Pythias, with which he united March 1, 1880, and has contributed liberally to vari- ous projects for the good of the order. Many of the offices in the local lodge have been held by him. and he is prominent in the work of the Uniform Rank,-C. B. Wooster Co., of Derby. having been named in his honor. For some time he was treas- urer of the Uniform Rank, but he is now serving on the Brigade staff, and his excellent business judg- ment has made him a valued worker in the Endow- ment Rank. Mrs. Wooster is a member of the Eastern Star, the Rebekahs, and the Relief Corps.
HON. JAMES D. MCGAUGHEY, M. D., who for nearly a third of a century has been actively en- gaged in the practice of medicine in Wallingford, of which town he is one of the foremost citizens and physicians, descends in an honorable lineage from an historic family, members . of which were con- spicuous in the war of the Revolution and in the an- nals of the State of Tennessee.
Dr. McGaughey was born Aug. 6. 1848, at Greeneville, Tenn., son of Samuel and Caroline A. (Burkhart) McGaughey, and a descendant on his father's side of Scotch-Irish parentage, being in the fifth generation from William McGaughey, who married Elizabeth Lackey, and came from Scotland to this country before the war of the Revolution and lived for a time in the State of Pennsylvania, whenee they moved to Holston, near Abingdon, Va.,
but later and some time after the Revolution set- tled in Greene county, Tenn. From there they moved to Boyd's Creek in East Tennessee, where the wife died in 1804. The husband then removed to Middle Tennessee and died about 1810, near Duck River. While living at Boyd's Creek he built a stockade, which was known in the early his- tory of Tennessee as MIcGaughey's Station (See Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee ). Of the ancestors of this couple little is known, but it is believed that they were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.
(II) Capt. Samuel McGaughey, son of William. was born in York county. Penn., July 15, 1763. and was nine years old when his father removed to Hol- ston (at that time Washington county, Va.). "In 1778 the Indians made war upon the settlement, and his father was called to serve, but the son took his father's place, as his substitute, and served through- out the Revolutionary war. He was under Capt. James Montgomery in March, 1779, in the expedi- tion commanded by Col. Evan Shelby, against the Chickamauga Indians. In 1779 he served under Capt. John McKee, also in a movement against the- Indians, as a mounted rifleman. In 1780 he was in Capt. Andrew Cowan's company, under Col. Isaac Shelby, all being under the command of Gen. Chas. McDowell, and marched into South Carolina. He was in the engagements on the Tiger River and on the Pocatelle. At the battle of King's Mountain he. was in Capt. John Pemberton's company, one of the 900 selected in Col. Shelby's regiment. In 1781 he. commanded a company under Gen. Marion in Col. John Sevier's regiment, and was with Marion at the. battle of Eutaw Springs.
The foregoing account of Capt. McGaughey's.| service is of record in United States Pension Office. and from his own statements, and the family ances- tral history in this sketch is from a written record. that he left. This record further tells us that he. had been on fourteen different expeditions after the Indians, and in a personal encounter with one, on the Tennessee river, killed him with a corn knife. He was a very swift runner. After the war Capt .. McGaughey was appointed territorial sheriff of his county, by John Sevier, and was with Sevier and! against Tipton, in the contest for the State of Frank- lin. which existed about four years. He also served as one of the commissioners to lay off the county site of Sevier county. His home was on a beautiful farm, a mile east of McGaughey's Station. He married Jane Laughlin, and they had a family of eleven children-five sons and six daughters. Capt. McGaughey and his family helped found the old Urbanna Church, in the upper end of Blount coun- ty, Tenn., their minister being Rev. Gideon Black- burn, the great western orator. Capt. McGaughey died in 1845, and his wife passed away in 1848. Mrs. Jane (Laughlin ) McGaughey was a daughter of John Laughlin, who with his wife came from Ire- land. Mr. Laughlin was a weaver of celebrity in his day, and his wife kept a large dairy at their
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home some twelve miles from Abingdon, Va. They were stanch Presbyterians, and strongly supported the Revolution.
(III) Major John McGaughey, son of Capt. Samuel, was born in Greene county. East Tennessee, July 12, 1792. He married Jane Robinson, whose father, as an associate of John Sevier, assisted in organizing the first government of Tennessee. She was born in Greene county, East Tennessee, Jan. 29, 1792. Major McGaughey was a clear-headed, even- tempered man, but had a fearless disposition. He served in many public capacities and was one of the commissioners to treat with the Indians before their removal from Tennessee and he served as a soldier under Gen. Andrew Jackson in his Indian campaigns in Alabama and Mississippi. He was a delegate, representing Greene. Sevier, Cocke, Mun- roe, Blount and McMinn counties, to the convention to revise the constitution of 1796, under which the State was first governed. Under the provisions of that constitution free persons of color were al- lowed to vote. This right was taken away in the new constitution. Major McGaughey offered an amendment to restore it, but the proposition was voted down, thus doing away with free colored suf- frage. Although being the owner of a very large farm he would never be the owner of slaves and hired all his work done by the day. He also served in both branches of the State Legislature a number of times. He took a great interest in the building of the E. T. & Va. R. R., from Bristol to Knoxville, now part of the Southern Railroad, using all his means to that end, and was a director of the com- pany at the breaking out of the Civil war. In that struggle he maintained his character as a Jack'sonian Democrat and stood out straight for the Union dur- ing the terrible political excitement in East Ten- nessee in the first two years of the war. He died at the old homestead May 20, 1874, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. His wife died Jan. 12, 1864, and the remains of both rest side by side at Mt. Bethel, near Greeneville. Tennessee.
(IV) Samuel McGaughey, son of Major John. and the father of Dr. James D. McGaughey, of Waliingford, was born May 31, 1816, on his father's farm near the Nolachuckey river. He was a mer- chant, both retail and wholesale, and was also largely engaged in a commission business. He was a broad- minded, liberal, Christian gentleman whose integrity was of the highest order. A man of intellect and unusually great business capacity, he did an exten- sive business and accumulated means which, how- ever, the Civil war wiped out. After the restoration of peace he began anew with increased energy and was rapidly regaining his lost fortune when he suffered a terrible fall which produced concussion of the brain, from which he died in ten days, his death occurring at his home in Greeneville, Tenn., Feb. 25, 1870. For many years he was a deacon of the First Presbyterian Church. He was generous
and sympathetic to the poor and took great pleas- ure in his gifts to them and all worthy objects.
In early life Samuel McGaughey was married to Miss Caroline A. Burkhart, born March 4, 1821, at Paperville, East Tenn., daughter of George and Elizabeth (Castle) Burkhart (originally spelled Burkhardt but abridged by this George).
The Burkhart family was of German origin. Peter Burkhart, the first of the family in this coun- try, came from Germany before the war of the Rev- olution and settled in Frederick county, Md., where George Burkhart, mentioned above, was born Sept. 30, 1775. He married (first ) Sept. 8, 1794, Hannah Hedge, who bore him five children and died in 1801, and he married (second) Jan. 7, 1805, Elizabeth Castle and the union was blessed with twelve chil- dren, of whom Caroline A. (Burkhart ) McGaughey was the eleventh child in order of birth. Elizabeth (Castle) Burkhart was of English descent, born Nov. 25, 1779, near Frederick City, Md., then called Frederick Town, where she was reared. Her death occurred July 14, 1855, at Paperville, East Tennes- see; George Burkhart died June 29, 1852, at the same place. This couple had settled in that section of Tennessee in 1806, when the husband built a paper mill, in which was made the first paper manu- factured in the State, and for which he received a premium of fifty dollars. From this mill the loca- tion became known as Paperville, a hamlet four miles east from Bristol. Of this Burkhart family one .member only-J. W. Burkhart-of Ruthton, Sullivan Co., Tenn., survives. He has preserved the family record.
To the marriage of Samuel McGaughey and Car- oline A. Burkhart were born eleven children, six sons and two daughters surviving the mother, whose death occurred Jan. 27, 1886, at Atlanta, Ga. All of the surviving children, except Dr. McGaughey, of Wallingford, Conn., reside in the South. The mother of this family was a woman of great piety and worth, and her lovable disposition won the es- teem of all who knew her. She was an earnest, con- sistent member of the First Presbyterian Church, ever greatly interested in its welfare. She reared all her children to become useful and honorable citizens.
James D. McGaughey, the subject proper of this notice, received his first instruction in school in 1854 in a small boys' department in a young ladies sem- inary at Greeneville, presided over by Mrs. Valen- tine Sevier, a daughter of Deacon Lyman Cannon, of Wallingford. Conn. Following this he attended Greeneville College, the oldest institution of learning in the State. Much of the school period of his life was during the trying scenes of the Civil war and it was greatly interrupted thereby, and his education was received under difficulties. At this time the Third Georgia Battalion of Confederate troops was quartered in the town to intimidate the inhabitants, two-thirds of whom were Unionists. This com-
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mand took the college for a smallpox hospital and destroyed one of the most valuable libraries in the State and all the apparatus belonging to the insti- tution. Driven from college but determined to pur- sue his studies, young McGaughey entered a private school, which was also disbanded on account of lios- tilities in that section. He next received instruction under the private tutorship of Robert McCorkle, one of the most thoroughly educated men in the State. Some days he could not reach the house of his tutor 011 account of the guerrilla warfare in the streets and the fear of being pressed into the Confed- erate service by these lawless men. By persever- ance, however, he continued his studies through those perilous times and until he entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia in 1866. He was graduated with all the honors of a full-fledged M. D. from that institution in 1870, returning to East Tennessee where for a year he practiced his profes- sion. In 1872 the Doctor located permanently in Wallingford, Conn., where his life and citizenship have been such as to command the respect and es- teem of his fellow townsmen, and to win for him a place among the foremost professional men and citi- zens of the town. He has been industrious, very act- ive professionally and a useful member of church and society, a gentleman in every way worthy of his honorable lineage. He has built up a large and lucrative practice, has occupied honorable stations in the profession in which he stands high, and also in town affairs. He is the medical examiner for the town of Wallingford and post surgeon for exemption from military taxes. He is also examining surgeon for a number of boards and insurance companies. He is a member of the American Medical Association. the State Medical Society, and of the New Haven County Medical Society, in which he has always taken an active interest. He is a contributor of papers to current medical periodicals. Fraternally he belongs to the K. of P .; Accanant Lodge, I. O. O. F .; Compass Lodge, F. & A. M., at Wallingford ; and he is vice-president of the State Board of the State Masonic Home. In 1880 he was a representa- tive from the town in the State Legislature and took part in the debate on the final settlement of the boundary line between New York and Connecticut, which had been in dispute for upwards of two hundred years. He was register of vital statistics for nine years.
On June 8, 1871, Dr. McGaughey was married to Sarah V., daughter of Burdett and Juliett ( Merri- man) Cannon, and granddaughter of Deacon Ly- man and Sally Cannon, all of Wallingford and of sturdy New England stock. To the Doctor and his wife have been born five children, of whom two daughters and one son survive, the others, a son and daughter, dying in infancy. Carrie Vene, born Feb. 4, 1876, married June 7, 1899. Henry L. Mor- ris, son of Dennis Morris, of Wallingford: Juliet Daisy, born Oct. 25, 1879; James David. Jr .. born May 15, 1882, is attending Lawrenceville (New
Jersey) School for Boys and is directing his ambi- tion towards a medical career ; Annie, born Aug. 25, 1872, died at the age of thirteen months ; and Sam- uel, a twin of James D., Jr., died at the age of fourteen months.
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